a defpot to prohibit the youth, in his dominions, from reading the claffics of Greece and Rome, left they should inhale the fpirit and the flame of freedom which diftinguished and ennobled the actors in those celebrated republics, and the authors who record their tranfactions. He would have given his finction, however, and imprimatur to Dr. Gillies's Hiftory of Greece, and recommended it to be a manual in the hands of ftatefmen, and a fchool-book to the fubjects of defpotical government. At the close of the introductory difcourfe to his tranflations from Lyfias and Ifocrates, he blends the politics of the times with ancient history; and, making a Pindaric excursion to the new. world, predicts, with all the pathos and furor of a prophet, the woes and disasters that would befal the inhabitants of the earth, if the Americans fhould withdraw from subjection to the mother country, and establish a popular form of government "If there is a people on earth," fays he, page 62, "who would re-establish a fimilar plan of government, and, dfdaining to continue happy fubjects of the country, under whofe protection they have so long flourished, would fet on foot a republican confederacy, let them tremble at the profpect of thefe calamities, which they must both inflict and fuffer. The unhappy confequences of their domeftic diffenfions would be confined to themselves; but the fatal effects of their political system would extend to the remoteft provinces of Europe. If that turbulent form of government should be established in a new hemifphere, if popular affemblies and fenates fhould there be intrusted with the right to exercife power, Why might they not abuse it as fhamefully as before? Why might not the ancient barbarities be renewed; the manners of men be again tainted with a favage ferocity; and thofe enormities, the bare defcription of which is fhocking to human nature, be introduced, repeated, and gradually become familiar?" To thefe bloody infinuations and interrogations a Spartan would have anfwered,-Why?

The fame political principles are incorporated into this hiftory of Greece, and come forward in the dedication.

The Hiftory of Greece expofes the dangerous turbulence of democracy, and arraigns the defpotifm of tyrants. By describing the incurable evils inherent in every form of republican policy, it evinces the inestimable benefits, refulting to liberty itfelf, from the lawful dominion of hereditary kings, and the fteady operation of wellregulated monarchy.'

The Hiftory of Greece defcribes the evils inherent in the Grecian republics, the evils that attended a fingle experiment: in politics. It does not defcribe the evils inherent in the Roman commonwealth, in the republics of Venice, of Genoa, in the Swifs cantons, the United Provinces and States of

America,

America. But although it had defcribed that mighty catalogue of evils, that would not "evince the ineftimable benefits refulting to liberty itself from the lawful dominion of hereditary kings," nothing but our actual experience evinces this fact; and an experience which teaches us that we are indebted for our liberties, not to the monarchical, but the popular branch of the conftitution. To thefe affertions we may apply what our author fays concerning the muscles in the Grecian statues, "That they are boldly pronounced."

In the third chapter of his Hiftory, Dr. Gillies gives an account of the return of the Dorians to Peloponnefus, under the conduct of the Heracleidæ; of the Eolic, Ionic, and Doric migrations; of the establishment of colonies in Thrace, Macedon, Africa, and Magna Grecia; of the abolition of monarchy in Greece of the Amphictyonic council; the oracle of Delphi; the Olympic games; and the Spartan laws. In thefe we find nothing different from the many modern compilations of Grecian history, except under the laft article, the legiflation of Lycurgus. Various theories have been formed concerning the fingular fyftem of policy which prevailed at Sparta; but it must be confeffed that our author's is the most curious that has yet appeared. After relating the common tales and fables concerning Lycurgus, on the authority of Plutarch, (who lived more than a thousand years after his hero) he tells us that the cele brated Spartan legislator discovered, in the courfe of his travels, the immortal poems of Homer; and upon the basis of the government and manners of the heroic times, described in the Iliad, erected the Lacedemonian republic. To attribute the character and spirit of a whole nation to the efforts of an individual, to deduce the form of government in a country from the accidental discovery of a book, may employ the speculation of a monk in his cell, but argues a total unacquaintance with real life, and the hiftory of human affairs. Solon confeffed what every legislator must have felt," that he adapted his inftitutions to the times; and gave the Athenians, not the best laws, but the best which they were capable of receiving." From a comparison too between the government and manners of the heroic times, as described by Homer, and those of the Spartan commonwealth, it evidently appears that the latter refer to an earlier ftate of society than the former, and characterife a more barbarous people. The general reserve of character, the taciturnity, the laconic eloquence, the severities inAicted on the young, which distinguished the Spartan institution, bear a nearer refemblance to the favages of America, than to the heroes of Homer.

Befide the internal evidence on this fubject, which, on all fubjects, human and divine, has great weight with philofophers,

we

we have the exprefs evidence of history to confirm thefe deductions of reason. The army of the Heracleida, when they came to recover the dominion of their ancestors, was com pofed of Dorians from Theffaly, who roamed the favage wilds of Oeta, Parnaffus, and Pindus, the braveft, but at the fame time the most barbarous of all the Greek tribes.* The Achæans, the ancient inhabitants of Laconia, were compelled to seek new habitations, while the barbarians of Theffaly took poffeffion of their country. Of all the nations which are the fubject of historical record, this people bore the nearest refemblance to the rude American tribes; and this furnishes the key to the Lacedemonian government.

The change of monarchy to popular government, and the tendency to form colonies, which took place at the period which we are now reviewing, gave rife to the study of legiflation. This fermentation in the human mind opened a new career to ambition and to wisdom. Morals and politics became the study of the nobleft spirits; the change of fituation induced the people to demand laws; and fimple citizens began to exercise an authority which they owed to their talents and their virtues.

No legiflator, however, enacts the laws, or forms the manners of a people, according to his own mind. The genius of the times is always too ftrong for the spirit of the law-giver. Men are ever the fame; tenacious of their rights, and jealous of their independence. If, when authority is best established, a monarch cannot model a fyftem of government for his fubjects, according to his own fancy, nor even pass a single law contrary to the confent of the people, the chief of an inferior tribe, clad in the fame garb, and covered with the fame fhed as his fellow citizens, could never enjoy the exercise of that power. A Lycurgus might appear, but who could create a people?

Like every other legiflator, Lycurgus formed his fyftem of government from the ftate of fociety; established ancient ufages into laws, and gave a direction to the current of the times. He contrived, indeed, to effectuate what no other law-giver has done. By methods, which have never been explained, a violence was committed upon nature, which ordains a progrefs to nations as well as to individuals. The people were arrested in the first stage of improvement. A bold hand was put forth to that spring which is in fociety, and stopt its motion.†

*Strabo, lib. ix. p. 427. Ifocrat in Archidam.

Our

+ The reader will find an elegant, and, what is of more consequence, a philofophical account of theSpartan government inELEMENTS OF THE PHILOSOPHY

Our author's panegyric on the regulations concerning women and marriage in Sparta, and the modesty that took place in the intercourfe between the sexes, merits attention.

Of this extraordinary circumftance,' viz. the fuperior fize of the Spartans, the evidence of contemporary writers could fcarcely convince us, if they had barely mentioned the fact, witho explaining its cause. But, in defcribing the fyftem of Lycurgus they have not omitted his important regulations concerning the intercourse between the fexes, women, marriage, and children, whose welfare was, even before their birth, a concern to the republic. The generous and brave, it is faid, produce the brave and good; but the phyfical qualities of children ftill more depend on the conftitution of their parents. In other countries of Greece, the men were liberally formed by war, hunting, and the gymnastic exercises; but the women were univerfally condemned to drudge in fedentary and ignoble occupations, which enfeebled the mind and body. Their chief employment was to fuperintend, more frequently to perform, the meaneft offices of domeftic economy, and to prepare, by the labour of their hands, food and raiment for themselves and families. Their diet was coarse and sparing; they abftained from the use of wine, were deprived of liberal education, and debarred from fashionable amusements. Women, thus degraded by fervility, appeared incapable of giving good fons to the republic, which Lycurgus regarded as the principal duty of the Lacedemonian females. By the inftitutions of Sparta, therefore, the working of wool, the labours of the loom and needle, and other mean mechanical arts, were generally committed tr fervile hands. The free-born women enjoyed and practifed thef liberal exercifes and amusements, which were elsewhere confidered a the peculiar privilege of men; they affifted at the public folemnities mingled in general converfation, and dispensed that applause and re proach, which, difpenfed by them, are always moft effectual. Hence they became not only the companions but the judges of the other fex ; and, except that their natural delicacy was not affociated to the honours of war, enjoyed all the benefit, without feeling the restraint, of the Spartan of laws.

The restoration of the natural rights of women restored moderation and modesty in the intercourse between the fexes. Marriage, though enjoined as a duty, could only be contracted in the full vigour of age; and thefe fimple inftitutions had a more falutary influence on the phyfical improvement of the Spartans, than either the doubtful expedient, which prevailed among them to the lateft times, of adorning the womens' apartments with the fineft ftatues of gods and heroes, that, by frequently contemplating thefe graceful images, they might produce fairer offspring; or the unnatural and deteftable cruelty of expofing delicate or deformed children; a practise ftrongly recommended by Lycurgus, and filently approved, or faintly blamed, by the greatest philofophers of antiquity.'

The

PPILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, by the Rev. Mr. LOGAN; a small volume, but which throws more light on the Greek and Roman History than many quartos.

.. The mafculine education, and robuft exercises of the Spartan women, confirm what we have mentioned, their near alliance to the American tribes. Homer defcribes women, in a more refined period, as employed in the labours of the loom and the needle." In the education of favages there is little diftinction between the fexes, and the female vies with the male in exercises that require bodily ftrength and muscular exertion. The custom which prevailed, among the Spartan women, of "difpenfing reproaches," as our author calls it, he deduces alfo from the heroic ages; though, in truth, it is a general feature of the fex. The American favages, and even the English vulgar, have carried the art of "difpenfing reproach," or what is commonly called fcolding, to high perfection; though none of them ever read the Iliad, or heard the name of Homer.

The modefty which Dr. Gillies afcribes to the Spartan women is a very fingular kind of modefty. It would be uncandid and unjust to attribute to the early periods of the commonwealth the corruptions of its decline. But from the Meffenian war we learn what the "natural delicacy and modefty" of the Spartan women could bear. During the fecond expedition of the Spartans against Meffenia, the army bound themselves, by an oath, not to return home until they had fubdued their enemies. This engagement detained them feveral years in the field, during which Sparta, inhabited only by women, children, and old men, produced no fucceeding generation to fupport the future glories of the republic. Senfible of this inconvenience, the fenate recalled fuch young men as, having left their country before they had attained to the military age, were not under any obligation to keep the field; and enjoined them to copulate promiscuously with the married women, and to beget fons from a patriotic regard to the republic.* The children, fays Dr. Gillies, page 131, born of these useful, though irregular connections, were diftinguished by the name of Parthenia, from the condition of their mothers!

In ages when their history is better known, and when their manners are defcribed by cotemporary writers, the lubricity, impudence, and meretricious manners of the women, difgrace the fpecies. Both, fexes went publicly to the fame bath; the youths and virgins, or rather young women, fought with one another Stark naked; and danced, promifcuously, in the fame

modeft

*Juftin, Lib. iii Cap. 4. fays, that the Spartans took this refolution on the complaint of their wives, whofe conftitutions by no means agreed with fo long a widowhood. See alfo Strabo, Lib. vi, page 427, and 428. Such was their natural delicacy and modefty!